Zoom's new Notes feature is a game-changer for meetings, and it's not AI-based
Zoom video calls are the cornerstone of many businesses' everyday operations and act as a platform for idea collaboration, project management, information sharing, and more. As a result, taking notes in Zoom calls is oftentimes essential, and this new feature will make it much easier.
On Wednesday, Zoom announced "Notes," which refers to a new workspace available in Zoom Meetings where users can jot notes before, during, and after meetings.
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To take notes during Zoom meetings, up until this point, users typically relied on third-party platforms such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word to create a collaborative document. With the Notes feature, users will no longer need to toggle between their meeting and their notes. Instead, they can do it all within the video call.
During a meeting, users will be able to open previously created notes or create a new one from an in-meeting navigation bar. There, they can initiate a sharing session where the entire team can collaborate in real-time as the meeting goes on.
The Notes feature will be helpful to prepare for meetings, too, where users can create a note with the agenda before the meeting and share it with colleagues. After the meeting, the note can be added and shared with anyone who needs the content.
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"We wanted to offer a clean user experience that allows users to create agendas and notes while staying within the Zoom platform instead of jumping to other content management tools," said Darin Brown, head of productivity applications at Zoom.
The Zoom Notes app interface resembles that of other popular note-taking applications, with a robust editor that allows users to organize their documents with fonts, styling, bullets, images, links, and more, according to the release.
The best part about Notes is that it will be available for all users at no additional cost. The feature will begin to roll out to users in the coming weeks.
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Other business productivity platforms, such as Otter.ai, Slack, and Google Workspace, have recently been revamping their offerings for professionals to collaborate, too. However, for the most part, all of those features have been leveraging generative AI.
It is refreshing to see that Zoom is implementing a helpful tool that doesn't rely on AI because it circumvents the risks of having a generative AI tool access confidential meetings and data and then possibly use that data to train itself further.